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Republicans are pointing the finger at Senate Democrats, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and even one another as the drama surrounding legislation that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks unfolds.
Sen. Josh Hawley’s measure, originally named after Pelosi but switched to the Honest Act after Senate Democrats agreed to support it during its successful committee vote, irked Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump.
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Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee argued that the bill came out at the last minute, included provisions they were unaware of and charged that the legislation specifically targeted Trump.
A dramatic committee hearing where the bill narrowly advanced with all Democrats and Hawley, R-Mo., voting for it, culminated in a fiery jab at the Republican from Trump.
However, Hawley said that he called the president shortly after and the pair made up, and noted that during the call Trump made clear “he thinks we should do a stock trade ban.” As to how Hawley earned a furious rebuke from the president, the lawmaker pointed the finger at his fellow Senate Republicans.
“Well, what he said is that he had a number of people call him and say that the bill has been changed at the last minute to force him to sell Mar-a-Lago and divest all of his assets, which is, of course, totally false,” he said. “It explicitly exempts him.”
When asked if Trump wanted to see the provision for future presidents kept or cut, Hawley said, “We didn’t discuss that.”
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“The bottom line is that the congressional ban is the core of this,” he said. “I mean, that is who, that’s where the ethics issues have been.”
Hawley’s bill would ban lawmakers and their spouses from purchasing, selling or holding individual stocks for the duration of the lawmaker’s time in office. And to gain support from Senate Democrats, a provision that would ban the next president and vice president from holding or trading stocks while in office was added.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump and Hawley spoke and reiterated that “conceptually,” the president supported the idea of preventing lawmakers from enriching themselves while in office.
“The reason that this idea to put a ban on stock trading for members of Congress is even a thing is because of Nancy Pelosi,” Leavitt said.
Whether the bill actually makes it to the Senate floor is up in the air, given that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaled that with only one Republican supporting it, he might not put it up for a vote.
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And the alterations to the bill set off alarm bells for Republicans on the panel, who all voted against it. Some, like Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fl., called Trump to let him know.
“Well, first off, it was a bill that we got right at the last-minute,” Scott told Fox News Digital. “It clearly targeted the president. I didn’t understand why he would team up with the Democrats to target the president and I didn’t understand why he voted against having a review of Pelosi’s trades, because I think a lot of people like to understand how she did it, made all that money.”
And Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who co-sponsored Hawley’s original version of the bill, said that the latest iteration was filled with provisions that weren’t there previously — like a ban on owning stable coins, which he contended was akin to “having a bank deposit in cash.”
“Like if you have money in the bank account, that would be a federal crime right now, which is nuts,” Moreno told Fox News Digital.
When asked if he felt that Democrats on the panel had made a concerted effort to sabotage the bill, he said, “Of course.”
“I mean, they’re going around, walking around, calling it a bipartisan bill. It’s like, why would you give them that? And by the way, it’s not a serious bill,” Moreno said. “But we gave them a talking point. Like why would we do that?”
Sen. Gary Peters, the top ranking Democrat on the committee, was perplexed as to how Republicans could blame Democrats for the version of the bill that advanced on Wednesday.
“We’re the ones that voted for it,” the Michigan Democrat told Fox News Digital. “That’s really a great twist of logic. Oh, my God. How does anybody get away with that kind of argument?”
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